The Return of the Snake
by hatchling
Summary: Orochimaru is back and Akatsuki have no choice but to accept it...for now. They have to find a way to get the snake out, before he causes more damage. Mentions of rape and m/m relationships. Tobi/OC
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **All characters, except for, Enkaku, are Masashi Kishimoto's, not mine.

**Author's note: **This story includes my OC, Enkaku. I tried my best not to make her Mary Sue in any way.

As a warning: This fic contains violence, cursing and mentions and attempts of rape.

Reviews are very welcome!

(Enkaku's chakra is lightning based and her moods control the weather in a small area, basically, when she's really pissed off, there's a storm. And she has some traumatic memories from her past. That should clear it a little...)

.........

Pain sat in his room, drowning in paperwork. He had a throbbing headache, which definitely didn't help him finish for the day. Akatsuki was in a bad situation. Orochimaru had left the organization long ago, but now he suddenly was back. Of course Pain, along with the other members, was strictly against it, but when the other option was an open war between the snake Sannin's army in Otogakure and Akatsuki, he had had no choice but to accept him back.

The Akatsuki leader put the papers down and rubbed his head with his palm. A soft knock from the door interrupted his thoughts.

"Come in", he called and Konan opened the door. "Hey Pain", she said and came in with two cups and a tea pot. "I thought you might need this." Pain nodded and gratefully took the tea cup offered to him. "Thank you, Konan."

The woman sat on the edge of the desk. "What are you wondering?" she asked when Pain frowned at his thoughts. "Just our situation. We have to get Orochimaru out", he answered. Konan nodded in agreement. "Easier said than done", she noted and took a sip of his tea. "But considering all the damage he has done to some of us..." Pain gritted his teeth and squeezed his cup tighter. "He's sick", he stated, and Konan nodded again.

Orochimaru had been back for only two weeks, and he already had managed to hurt Deidara in the worst possible way. To Sasori he had done almost the same, back when they were partners.

The snake-ninja only knew the real reason he ever wanted back in, but Pain was determined to find out if it was the only way to ruin his plans and throw him out. He had the feeling that it just might prove to be a little difficult.

......... ......... .........

"Just leave me alone!" Enkaku yelled.

"Tch. Don't be so mean... I don't mean to hurt you", Orochimaru said. He shirked at the girl and licked his lips. "Unless you want me to..."

"Gahh, you're disgusting..!" Enkaku said and wrinkled her nose. She was glaring at the Sannin, although she really was terrified.

It was raining heavily outside, but Enkaku definitely was no match for Orochimaru inside the Akatsuki hideout. She didn't have the power of the lightning that struck nearby, when she had to fight inside, although the storm raging above the hideout was caused by her state of mind.

Orochimaru came closer to Enkaku and chuckled. "Now, now..." Enkaku's back was already against the wall. The snake-ninja's cold body pressed against hers and snakes bind her arms.

"Get away from me, you creep!" she cried and struggled. She was panicking.

"Hey! What the hell is going on here!?" Enkaku quicky turned her head to see who had said that. "...Hidan!" she breathed in relief. "Get your hands off her, you freaking slyther", the Jashinist told and reached for his scythe.

Orochimaru narrowed his eyes, but stepped away from Enkaku, releasing her from the snakes' grip. She pushed the man further quickly and stepped further herself. "Don't ever touch me again..!" she hissed.

Orochimaru smirked again and chuckled. He knew better than to cause an open conflict between himself and the Jashinist, but he still wanted this girl, like some other Akatsuki members too... later. Now he only disappeared with a cloud of smoke.

Enkaku leaned her head back, closed her eyes and Hidan heard her take a deep breath. "Hey bitch, you okay?" he asked pretty indifferently. "Yeah... Thanks, Hidan", was the answer. She didn't care if he really didn't give a shit, she was just so relieved. The weight of all the memories had started to feel like too much to bare.

"No problem", Hidan said. "Now you'd better stay the hell away from him. You coming?" he asked as he started walking along the hallway. Enkaku followed, not wanting to be left alone.

"Enkaku-chan!" Tobi yelled happily as Enkaku and the zealot entered the kitchen. "Hi, Tobi", she flatly answered. Tobi tilted his head, that way showing his confusion. "'Kaku-chan, what's wrong?" he asked. "Nothing, I'm fine", she lied.

Hidan stayed quiet, which was strange enough to make everyone highly suspicious.

"Tobi might be simple, but he's not blind", Kisame said, "Neither are we." Enkaku shot him a deathly glare. "Just shut up already!" she raised her voice. Kisame narrowed his eyes at her, but said nothing.

Enkaku sighed, grabbed an apple from the counter and turned to leave. "Hey, remember what I said", Hidan called before she was gone.

She still heard the conversation going on inside. "What did you do, Hidan?" Kakuzu's voice asked. "Nothing, dumbass! Now shut up and let me eat."

.........

Okay, so this is obviously going to be continued if there is anyone to read it... So, just review and tell me if I should continue. :)


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note: **Here's the second chapter. I really hope it didn't turn out to be boring, or too OOC.

Comments and all reviews are very welcome!

.........

Later the same day Enkaku walked towards the training grounds. She was the only one inside, since the others were already training, or so she thought. Pain had decided to have a break with the missions, they had enough to deal with Orochimaru already. Speak of the Devil...

"Ku ku ku..." Enkaku heard his familiar chuckling and froze. "All alone again?" She turned around quickly and saw Orochimaru leaning on the wall right behind her. "Get lost", she said, managing to hide the shaking of her voice pretty well.

"No." Orochimaru suddenly appeared behind her and locked her arms behind her back. She struggled as she was dragged into the Sannin's room. She wanted to scream, but there was no one to hear.

......... ......... .........

Tobi scratched his head and frowned under the mask. "Where's Enkaku-chan?" he wondered. "I haven't seen her since morning, hm", Deidara said and shrugged.

Kakuzu frowned and looked at Hidan, who seemed somehow a little distressed. "Hidan, what's wrong with you?" he asked. "Nothing, asshole", the Jashinist answered and waved her his scythe experimentally. "Liar", Kakuzu said and crossed his arms. "You know something about Enkaku, don't you?"

Tobi quickly lifted his gaze to meet Hidan's. "Please Hidan-san, tell me... What's going on?" he asked. Other Akatsuki members were surprised to hear that Tobi didn't use third person of himself. Also, his voice was much more serious than usually. That made Hidan snort. "Orochimaru was all over her this morning. She was in deep shit before I happened to walk by."

"You hid information like that from us, un!?" Deidara snapped. Tobi said nothing, only started towards the hideout, followed by the other members.

......... ......... .........

Orochimaru enjoyed Enkaku's desperation and tears. He enjoyed how she feared and how she was completely in his mercy. She was stripped from her pants and cloak, now only things between her and the snake were her top and underwear. Orochimaru didn't want to rush.

Enkaku squeezed her eyes shut and gritted her teeth. "Let me go..." she said shakily. The Sannin ran his fingers along her hips and smirked when she shuddered. "I have no intention to stop. We haven't even started yet."

A wave of panic washed over Enkaku. She wouldn't live through this again, she _couldn't_. She started struggling fiercely again. "Get off of me! Let go!" she cried. "Tobi..! MADARA!" Orochimaru laughed, but not for long. The door of his room burst opened.

"Let go of her." The voice wasn't familiar, but the man behind the words was. Tobi was standing in the doorway. Orochimaru backed off and the snakes disappeared, dropping Enkaku to the floor, where she quickly wrapped her cloak around her.

"Ahh... Uchiha Madara shows up", Orochimaru smirked. "Don't touch her, ever", Madara said. "I can't make such promises. I've decided to make her mine", was Orochimaru's simple response.

Madara grabbed the front of his cloak and threw him against the wall. "Listen to me now creep and listen good. I can't throw you out of the Akatsuki, but I can make sure, that if you ever lay a finger on another member- her, Deidara, Sasori or _anyone _-you will pay for it", he said quietly, in a tone that told he meant every word.

"Now, now, Uchiha... You wouldn't want to break a war would you?" Orochimaru said. "My army against your organization... Who do you think would win?" Madara was utterly still for a moment, trying to remain as calm as possible, and not to rip the snake in little pieces. "Get out of my sight", he then hissed and threw Orochimaru towards the door.

He started laughing madly and reached his hands towards Enkaku. Two black snakes flew from his sleeves. She screamed and scrambled towards Madara, who took her into his arms and wiped the snakes aside. Now he let her lean against his chest and cry.

Madara looked down at the girl in his arms and touched her cheek softly. "Are you hurt?" he asked. Enkaku only held on to Madara's cloak like her life depended on it, unable answer.

The Uchiha turned his head to face Orochimaru. A blood-red sharingan eye stared at the sannin from the eyehole of his mask and their gazes met. Orochimaru was utterly still for a moment, before he hissed loudly and disappeared. Madara carried Enkaku into their room without saying a word, Kakuzu and Zetsu being the medical ninja's followed and the rest went to the living room.

"We can't have him in Akatsuki any longer", Itachi said. "Neither can we throw him away", Kisame said sourly. Deidara sat down on and Sasori noticed he was shaking. The puppet put a comforting hand on his shoulder and said: "Calm down. He's won't do anything to any of us in a while. He might be twisted, insanely strong pedophile, but he's not dumb. I've never seen Madara snap like that, though I understand why he did." _I've been in the same situation_, he continued in his head.

No one had anything to add. Sasori was right: You didn't want to get to Uchiha Madara's wrong side. Everyone knew when there was Tobi and when Madara, and Madara they recognized as the strongest, who knew when to take the lead. Tobi was...well Tobi.

"Pain want's you to the meeting room, now." Everyone turned to look at Konan, who had just appeared to deliver the message. Akatsuki hurried to obey.

Pain, Kakuzu and Zetsu were already there when others, except for Enkaku and Tobi, arrived and took their seats

"I think everyone here have noticed that we have a serious problem. That problem is named Orochimaru", Pain said. "We can't let him go on like this anymore."

"Hell no! Seriously, I can work with someone who kills random people on daily basis, but someone who want's to fucking rape the whole fucking Akatsuki is too much", Hidan announced. "We keep talking about this, but the fact that his army really is stronger than us always gets in the way", Itachi reminded quietly. "I was hoping we could make some progress with that plan here", Pain clarified. "Any suggestions?"

"Yes", Tobi, or was it still Madara?, said. No one had noticed his arrival, but there he sat on his own seat. "We kick him out." Pain sighed and nodded. "Yes... But we can't do that. Itachi was right, there's no way we'd win that battle."

"There is a way", Madara said simply. He leaned his elbows to the wooden surface of the table and linked his fingers. "We need backup."

"Madara, be reasonable. Who would back us up? The Akatsuki?" Konan softly questioned. Madara was quiet for a while, before successfully shocking everyone: "In this situation... we can't be the most feared organization the ninja world has ever known. This is a situation we can't accept. We have became a family as much as a criminal organization, and we _can't_ let our family members be hurt this way. Not even if the other option was a battle against the most powerful armies ever known. And for the ones we love, we are going to find a way to win that battle."

Madara's voice grew more firm at every word, and it had powerful effect on everyone. Sasori squeezed Deidara's shaking hand under the table. Hidan actually reached for Kakuzu's hand and the miser let him have it. Masochist or not, he would never let his zealot go through the pain Orochimaru had caused to some others. He'd rather let every single one of his hearts be ripped out and fed to the crows.

"Very inspiring", Itachi said ever so quietly. "I mean it. But still, who is going to help us?" Pain had listened Madara's every word and let them sink in his heart. Now he sighed and said: "Konoha and Suna." Everyone froze.

"Umm, what..?" Kisame asked incredulously. "Konoha and Suna!?"

"Do we have a choice?" Sasori said. "We still don't even know what Orochimaru want's. What ever it is, he's been successfully damaging us, and I can't say I'd like it." The room fell silent again. After a moment, Itachi spoke. "We will go to Konoha", he said simply, his eyes directed straight forward, at no one specifically. Kisame gaped at him in disbelief. "We will?" "Yes, Kisame, we will." "...Okay."

"That's decided. How about Suna?" Pain asked.

Sasori reached Deidara's eyes and shrugged. Deidara bit his lip and nodded at the puppet. He was pretty sure they were about to agree on a suicide mission... "We'll go to Sunagakure, yeah", he then stated. "Unless we get buried in sand before we get there. That wouldn't be pleasurable death, un."

"Alright..." Pain said and frowned. "But please, try to get buried in to sand _afterwards_ and not die, we need help."

Hidan suddenly burst into laughter. "Fucking perfect! Itachi, the merciless clan slaughterer, is going to a village he's hated in! Sasori and the blondie go in to a village which Kage they killed! _To get help_! Well _fuck!_ Me and Kakuzu will go to my home village, to the people I used to live with."

Kakuzu lifted his brows. "I was under the impression that you weren't very popular around your home village..." he said. "I'm not. After sacrificing half of the fucking village, who would be!" was the Jashinist's casual answer. No one asked any more about that.

"That should do...assuming anyone answers", Pain mused, mostly to himself. "Tobi stays here with Enkaku-chan!" Madara, now turned into Tobi, announced. "Okay, I can assume you look after her here, since Orochimaru's obviously not on this mission. As for Zetsu, Konan and myself, there's a lot more to do than to gather help", Pain said. He looked at everyone, one by one. "Leave as soon as you're ready, and come back with information. For now, you're dismissed."

The Akatsuki disappeared besides Konan. She stroked Pain's hair and kissed him on the cheek. "Well done", she said softly into his ear. Pain turned so that he could kiss her properly. He was so happy he had Konan, always by his side and keeping him from drowning into all trouble. She was his lifesaver.

.........


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** None of the characters in this chapter is mine, they all belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

**Author's Note:** Okay, the third chapter. It' short I know, sry about it. Again, I hope no one's too OOC and that you like it :)

Thanks for the reviews and please, keep giving them!

.........

Itachi and Kisame had taken a short cut through the Konoha's training grounds on their way to meet the Hokage. Unfortunately, some "old friends" were there training...

"Uchiha Itachi, give me one good reason not to kill you right there and now!" Naruto cried and pointed at the mentioned Uchiha. "I can give you two", he said. "One: You would not be able to do it, and two: We have a reason to be here. Reason, which you really would like know." Naruto shook in rage. "I couldn't care less about why you're here! Sasuke's suffering is all your fault", he yelled and prepared to attack. A hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"Let him speak. If he wanted to fight, he would've attacked already, and he hasn't even activated his sharingan", Kakashi said calmly to Naruto, but never looked away from Itachi. The blonde boy realized the truth behind his words and calmed down a little, though still looking outrageous. "So I guess you want to meet the fifth?" Kakashi asked, this time from Itachi and Kisame. "That's where we are headed."

......... ......... .........

"You! _You_! How dare you show your face here blondie!?" Kankuro screamed at Deidara. Then he turned to Sasori and gritted his teeth. "And you were supposed to be dead already, Akasuna!" He reached for his scrolls, but Baki held him back. "Kankuro, no! Remember what happened last time you rushed to attack them like that?" he reasoned. "Let go of me", Kankuro yelled, but gave up on the attempt of attacking. "How could I forget? But I also remember what there bastards did to Gaara", he hissed venomously.

"We're not here to fight, we want to talk to the Kazekage", Sasori stated. "There's no way I'd let you anywhere near him!" Kankuro announced incredulously. "Tch. Like you could stop us from going anyway, yeah", Deidara grimaced at the young puppeteer. Sasori shook his head.

"I already told we're not here to fight. But we have to meet the Kazekage, you like it or not", he told calmly, in almost bored tone. "I don't like waiting, so just let us ask him what we came here to ask, and we will not cause harm." Kankuro narrowed his eyes. "Alright... But I have one condition", he said finally, after thinking through the situation. "You have to let me tie you up."

Deidara opened his mouth to protest, but Sasori was faster: "That's not too much to ask." The bomber gave him an angry glance, but didn't complain out loud. He didn't want to blow their chance.

......... ......... .........

"Is that a fact..." Tsunade mused. She had now heard all about Orochimaru's new membership in Akatsuki and his doings there, as well as about his army in Otogakure. There was many Konoha jonin and chuunin in her office, mainly making sure they wouldn't try any tricks, but also because they were interested to hear what Akatsuki wanted.

"That's how things are", Itachi said. "And now you have to get him out no matter what, I get that... But tell, me why would I help you?" Tsunade asked, linking her fingers and looking at the Uchiha and then Kisame from beneath her brow. It was Kisame who answered. "Just put it this way: We're warning you of an enemy and offering help in destroying it. Because there's no way Orochimaru would settle with just killing us, when he has the chance to kill _everyone _who's against him", he said. "We just happen to be first on the list."

Tsunade let it sink and sighed. The missing-nin of Mist was right, Orochimaru was a common threat and the best way to defeat him was to unite. She wasn't sure however, if trusting Akatsuki in this would be the best option. It could be a trap... Her thoughts were interrupted by Naruto.

"I want to help them, Tsunade-obaasan", the blonde announced. Tsunade lifted a brow at him and was about to say it wasn't his decision to make, but the look in the genins eyes told her it would've been useless. His eyes showed pure determination, which was so familiar for everyone who were familiar with Naruto himself. Which surprised the Hokage, was that Kakashi agreed.

"It's not my, neither Naruto's task to decide, but I think we should help", the jonin said. "We must make sure Orochimaru will be defeated. We know how strong he is, and I believe we can win only if we join forces." Tsunade sighed again and closed her eyes to think. Kakashi had just stated out loud what she had been thinking.

"I'll have to think about it", she finally said. "Kakashi is right, but I still have to remember it's Akatsuki we're talking about. It's getting late, you two just come back here at dawn and I'll give my answer."

Itachi nodded and Kisame grinned, revealing his sharp teeth. "We will", the blue man said and with that, both Akatsuki members disappeared. Tsunade bit her thumbnail and frowned. Being The Hokage sure was not easy.

......... ......... .........

"..."

Gaara was staring at the two Akatsuki members in front of his desk. They really were asking for him to give them help. In a battle, that might lead into a war. Deidara seemed uncomfortable and very displeased and Sasori looked plain bored.

"So what do you say?" the redhead asked. "..." Gaara was still silent. Temari, who stood right behind his seat, frowned. "Gaara, they're Akatsuki! Those two captured and killed you", she said firmly. "Why would you want to help them?"

Gaara leaned back in his chair. "As the Kazekage I must think what's best for the village. If it's true that Orochimaru wants to gain control over all the hidden villages...it'd be better to defeat him now without endangering Suna."

"I guess you have a point there", Kankuro surprisingly agreed. "You're right. This village is full of people who I care about, and if someone like that snake-creep got his hands on them...that's a risk I'm not willing to take." Temari looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding. "That's true. Let's fight", she said simply.

"Before we make promises", Gaara said, leaning his elbows to the desk, "I want to know if Konoha agrees. If they do, you can count us in."

Sasori nodded and remained expressionless, but Deidara was slightly shaking. The truth was, that he was afraid they wouldn't get help. If they failed, there would be nothing stopping Orochimaru from taking whatever he wanted and from whoever he wanted. Also, the invisible ropes around him were freaking him out.

_Deidara couldn't see a thing. He only felt something wrapped tightly around his body, slowly moving against his bare skin... All he heard was quiet hissing of the snakes, before the familiar chucking reached his ears. "Ku ku ku..."_

Gaara frowned as he noticed the blonde's discomfort grow. "Kankuro, release them", he said. Kankuro was about to protest, but then decided to obey. At the moment he was free, Deidara fell on his knees, breathing slightly hitched and eyes closed. Sasori sighed briefly and put a hand on his shoulder. "You brat", he mumbled. "Just couldn't hold yourself together..."

"Temari", Gaara said quietly, "go get Chisoku." Temari nodded and ran out of the room. In under a minute she returned with a small hawk. "This is Chisoku. She is one of Suna's fastest messengers. Just tell her where you want him to fly, and she'll take a message anywhere. She will bring Gaara the message of Konoha's participation when you know it", she told and the hawk flew to Sasori's shoulder. The puppet nodded and helped his partner up. "You will hear of us", he promised quietly, before disappearing with Deidara and the bird.

"What have we gotten ourselves into?" Temari mused. Kankuro shook his head, not knowing what to say and Gaara responded with a short 'hn'. He hoped he had made the right decision for the village...

......... ......... .........

Deidara and Sasori were spending the night in a small forest, not so far from the desert. They had set a campfire and were now resting.

"Brat", Sasori called. Deidara lifted his gaze to meet his and lifted a brow questioninly. "Hm?" Sasori stood up and walked to the other side of the fire, to sit next to his partner. "Are you all right?" he asked. Deidara looked away. He was ashamed of his weakness at the Kazekage's place, but he couldn't help it. "I'm fine, Danna, yeah."

Sasori gently turned the bomber's head back to face him and saw the slightest flush on his cheeks. "You were thinking about him again back there, weren't you", the puppeteer asked. Deidara shook his head. "I wasn't thinking about him, un, he was intruding my head", he said firmly. "There's a difference, yeah." "I know there is", Sasori said in monotone as always. "But he's been doing it a lot lately." Deidara nodded. "All the time... Anything that can possibly bring him back to my mind, does so. And that's _everything, _yeah."

Sasori let the bomber lean against him. "It'll be over soon. It all depends on Itachi and Kisame now, and they won't let us down", he said. "And if Hidan and Kakuzu succeed, Orochimaru will be defeated for sure." Deidara pressed even closer to his Danna and sighed. "Yeah... Orochimaru will be defeated", he repeated. "I wonder how Kakuzu and Hidan are doing anyway, un..."


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: **So here's the fourth chapter... It's not exactly how I wanted, but it just has to go now. Sorry for the OOCness and weird and weirder OCs...

Please, review!

.........

Kakuzu and Hidan were making their way through a forest towards the village Hidan used to live in. As they kept jumping from branch to branch, Kakuzu decided it was time for him to ask a question he had been wanting to ask from the Akatsuki's big meeting. He suddenly stopped.

"Let's stop here for a minute", he said. Hidan frowned at him and stopped few tree branches ahead of him. "Why the hell?" "Because I say so", Kakuzu answered and jumped down. Hidan followed. "Why? We have just about a fucking half an hour to go", he demanded. Kakuzu shot an angry glance towards his partner. "Because", he said. "it's not late enough. It must be night before we can go, so we won't get spotted."

The two set a fire and sat down to rest for a moment. Hidan stared at his partner, who seemed oblivious. The zealot crossed his arms and groaned. "Spit it out." Kakuzu just glanced at him from the corner of his eye. "Yugakure is not a hidden ninja village", the miser said. "Who are we going to ask for help, civilians?"

Hidan had been waiting for that question. "I wasn't the only one who didn't settle with the 'no-ninjas' rule, seriously. There's a bunch of fuckers who have kept the damn Yugakure ninjas from extinction", he told. Kakuzu nodded, satisfied with the information. Soon another question crossed his mind. "Why would they want to meet you after what you did before you left? How are we going to reach them anyway?" he voiced his thoughts. "Don't sweat it, just trust me. I know what I'm doing, asshole", The zealot said with a smirk. Kakuzu snorted but didn't ask any more.

After few hours of rest and half an hour of running, the two walked through the wooden gateway to Yugakure. Hidan put his Akatsuki hat on to cover his face. They didn't want to rise suspicion, and the person who slaughtered so many people from the village, was sure to be noticed.

Hidan looked around from under his wide hat as they walked the main street of the dark village. He nodded towards a small alleyway. "There", he said shortly and Kakuzu let himself be lead along the alleyway to a small door.

They went in, and Kakuzu was a little surprised to see how big the room was. There was a low table and a couch on either side of it. A dark partition separated a small section of the corner of the room, and the lights were dim; all the windows were nailed shut. Hidan threw his hat on to one of the couches and sat down next to it, throwing his feet to the table.

"Anyone of you bastards here!?" he called casually. Kakuzu groaned as he stood next to the Jashinist. "You should think before doing", he said and crossed his arms. "That recklessness is going to cost you your life." Hidan snorted. "Like it ever could, seriously..."

Soon a young woman, 18 at most, came behind the partition and stopped to stare at Hidan blankly. "Aniki", was the only word she said.

Kakuzu frowned at the girl and then looked down at his partner. "Did she just call you brother?" the miser asked. Hidan kept his eyes on the newcomer as he spoke: "Yeah, that bitch is my sister. What the hell took you so long?" he asked from the girl now. Her gaze hardened a little, but when she spoke, her voice was stoic. "Can I help you?" Hidan lifted a brow at her. "Yeah, make yourself useful and go get Mikoto, will ya", he said and waved her off. "Yeah..." With that, she disappeared back behind the partition.

"I didn't know you had a sister", Kakuzu said. "She's a mess, seriously. Freaking retarded or something", the Jashinist said and shook his head. "Can't blame her though." Kakuzu made a mental note to ask more later, but now they had to concentrate on the situation at hand. The man he assumed to be Mikoto, came from behind the partition and sat opposite to Hidan.

"Hidan, it's been a while", he said. Kakuzu narrowed his eyes. He didn't like this guy... There was something about his eyes, a glint that caught the miser's attention in bad way. Hidan's sister stood next to the man, a lot like Kakuzu stood beside Hidan.

"Mikoto, fucking good to see you alive", the Jashinist smirked. "We have a little problem..." Hidan told the man the basic things about Orochimaru.

After the story, Mikoto was quiet for a moment. He ran his fingers through his brown spiky hair and sighed. "The trouble you've gotten yourself into... Well, I don't think I can help you, Hidan-san..." he slowly said. "I don't have the resources."

Hidan narrowed his eyes and leaned forward. "You're saying you won't help us, asshole?" he asked venomously. Mikoto sighed again. "Look I don't want to fight you, but we don't have the manpower", he said apologetically. Something just told the two Akatsuki members he wasn't sincere about it. "You might want to fucking re-think about that..." Hidan started and reached for his scythe, but Kakuzu cut him off. "Don't. We didn't come here to look for a fight. I think his answer was clear enough", he said. He had a really bad feeling about the whole thing. Hidan stood up abruptly. "Whatever, asshole", he said, took his hat and scythe and went to the door. He flung it opened and looked back over his shoulder. "See you in hell."

......... ......... ..........

"Itachi", Kisame begun, sitting on the rooftop next to the Uchiha. "What's up?" Itachi said nothing, just kept the gaze of his half-blind eyes directed forward. Kisame let out a deep breath and looked at the starlit sky. They were silent for a while.

"What do you think?" Itachi finally asked. "Huh?" Kisame glanced at him. The Uchiha kept staring forward. "What will happen to us?" Kisame was surprised by the sudden question, but managed t shrug. "Hard to say. Judging by the meeting with the Hokage, we have a chance", he said. Itachi nodded. "A chance is not much." "But it's better than nothing", Kisame noted, "which is what we had before." Itachi nodded again and didn't say more.

Again, a while went in silence, before Kisame opened his mouth and asked: "Itachi, you know I would never let Orochimaru have you, right?" Now the Uchiha looked directly at him. "Have me", he repeated flatly. Kisame was not dazed by his lack of emotion. They had been partners for some time already, so he was used to it. "Exactly. I won't let him use your body in any way. Not to live forever, neither to anything else", he clarified, looking back to Itachi's onyx eyes.

"I know", the Uchiha finally said. "I know that, Kisame." The shark-like man nodded and stood up. "Good. Now we need to get some sleep. Come on", he said and Itachi let him help him up. "Tomorrow is going to be an important day."

......... ......... .........

"I can't believe those bastards denied us help!" Hidan yelled and let himself drop on an armchair in a cheap motel room they were spending the rest of the night.

"Calm down", Kakuzu said. "And be quiet. We can't get caught. Or _you_ can't get caught." Hidan sighed. "But it's just so fucking hypocrite of them, seriously! Not enough manpower, fuck them", he kept going. "Hidan, be quiet", Kakuzu said again, getting annoyed with his partner. "How the hell can you be so calm!? If we can't beat Orochimaru he'll just do whate..!" the zealot was cut down by Kakuzu, who gripped the front of his cloak and pulled him up from his seat to place a passionate kiss on his lips. The zealot was silenced. "Now would you just be quiet for a moment?" the miser said after pulling away for oxygen. "Orochimaru will not touch you. I swear that in the name of that lousy God of yours. Orochimaru will not. Touch. You. Get it?"

Hidan set his gaze downcast and sighed. "Yeah...I get it." "Good."

They sat on the armchair, Hidan snuggled up against Kakuzu's chest. There wasn't much such moments between the two, but now they were both worried. After a while, Kakuzu asked: "Why have you never spoken about your sister?" Hidan let out a deep breath. "I left her just like that even though I fucking knew she's not alright", he said. "She's never been." Kakuzu frowned. "What are you talking about?" he asked. "Don't know why, that's just how things are. She's pretty much useless", the Jashinist shrugged. Kakuzu's frown deepened, but he let a comfortable silence fall upon them.

"I can get you help", a voice suddenly said from the corner of the room. Both Akatsuki members jumped and looked towards the voice, where Bana stepped to the light. She had no expression on her face and her long bright-red hair was now braided, unlike back when they had met Mikoto. Hidan didn't bother getting up from Kakuzu's lap, but he turned partly around, so he could see her better. "What the fuck?! You shouldn't be sneaking around like that, bitch!" he said angrily. "And what the hell are you talking about?"

Bana sat on the floor, cross-legged and tilted her head. "Will you listen?" she asked. The Akatsukis shared a glance with each other and then nodded simultaneously.

"Okay, so... Orochimaru has complete control over Yugakure ninjas. He visited here a while ago and explained things from his own point of view, promised things and Mikoto was sold. We however, don't approve how things have turned out... We want to fight with Akatsuki to beat the snake", Bana told emotionlessly. Kakuzu stared at the girl in the eye and decided that she seemed a lot more trustworthy than Mikoto.

Hidan came to the same conclusion. "Who the hell are "we"?" he asked. Bana slowly lifted his gaze and answered: "The Academy. There isn't much of us... 20 ninjas. But they're strong."

Kakuzu sighed and nodded. "I guess we have no choice." Hidan agreed, for once. "Yeah, get this damn "Academy" ready to go for dawn. That's when we're leaving", he said. Bana nodded and backed off to the shadows again. Then she just wasn't there anymore. Hidan stared after her, and a tiny bit of guilt rose in his mind. She meant good, and what was he doing for her? Pouring more shit on her.

The Jashinist's mouth twisted into a smirk. "Well shit! It seems we don't need to go back empty handed after all!" Kakuzu smiled a little under his mask. "Twenty men are better than nothing", he admitted.

Their journey had not been in vain. But what does Mikoto and his men have to do with the whole thing..?


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note:** The fifth chapter. I'm really bad at writing any kinds of fighting scenes, so they're clumsy :P Sry about it.

Please, review and tell me what you think. Shit, tell me if you _don't _think :D All reviews are welcome!

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing but Enkaku. All other named characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

.........

Enkaku slowly lifted her gaze to see the tree she had been aiming for. "Oh, come on..!" she groaned, seeing that not all of the kunais she had thrown were where they were supposed to be. "I try and try, but still they won't go where I want them to, Goddamn knives..." she cursed quietly. The worse her anger grew, the darker the sky got above her. Then a lightning pierced the sky, hit the tree and split it in halves. Enkaku nodded, satisfied, and started wandering towards the hideout. The clouds disappeared as quickly as they had came.

"Enkaku-chan!" Tobi called as he landed next to the kunoichi. "Tobi", she smiled at him. "Were you hiding in the trees again?" Tobi nodded. "Tobi has to look after Enkaku-chan", he said. The purplish-haired woman huffed. "Of course..." Not like she minded.

"Did you hear, 'Kaku-chan?" the masked man asked happily. "What?" Enkaku asked. "Sasori-san and Deidara-sempai have returned!" Enkaku lifted her brows and looked at Tobi to see if he was lying. In vain, of course, the mask covered all his facial expressions. It made complete sense too, for them to return first, since the hideout was closest to Suna. "Okay, well lets go and see what they have to tell then", Enkaku said.

They went straight to the Leader's room without knocking. Pain just frowned at that. "Ever heard of knocking..? But come in", he encouraged and signed for the two t close the door behind them. The two artists were standing in front of Pain's desk and Konan stood behind him. "So, go ahead and tell us", the pierced man said.

"We have no Suna-ninjas with us, un..." Deidara said quietly and everyone's heart dropped. "But they'll help us", Sasori continued. "On one condition ...yeah", Deidara added, "That's if Konoha's in." Pain nodded thoughtfully. "Good. Good... You're here alive and well, and now we just need to wait for Itachi and Kisame", he said. Then he spotted a bird on Sasori's shoulder. "What's that?" Sasori looked at the bird as well and answered: "Chisoku. She'll take the message to Suna in half a day, when we know Konoha's answer." Pain nodded again.

"Where's...Orochimaru, un?" Deidara asked. "I don't know, I haven't seen him since you left. He must know something's going on", Pain answered. Deidara grimaced. "I don't like this..."

"Missed me already?" horribly familiar voice asked mockingly. "My, my, if I only had known, I would've returned sooner to you, my Deidara-chan..."

Pain shot up and everyone in the room turned towards the door where Orochimaru stood casually, leaning against the doorframe. "Did you have something to tell me?" he asked just as casually. Pain narrowed his Rin'negan eyes. "Yes. You are no longer a part of Akatsuki. Get out", he said. The sannin tilted his head and his smirk didn't die. More like widened. "Is that so... Have you thought this through, Leader_-sama_?" he questioned. Pain didn't like the look on the snake's face. "Get out. I've been an idiot ever letting you back", he said firmly.

Orochimaru seemed a little dazed for a moment, but soon his smirk turned into a crazy grin. Sasori shifted unconsciously to stand in front of Deidara and Tobi pulled Enkaku closer by the arm. "You will regret this", the snake-sannin hissed, before disappearing.

Deidara noticed he was shaking again, and hated the sign of weakness. He still couldn't help himself. "Now then", Pain sighed as he dropped back to his seat. "We know for sure the battle will come in short, we should get prepared. I just wish Kisame and Itachi come back with reinforcements..." Everyone wished the same thing. Without backup, they would get slaughtered. "And let's wish they come _soon_. I hate waiting", Sasori noted sourly.

......... ......... .........

Naruto was following Itachi, observing him silently. He wasn't sure if he trusted the Uchiha, but couldn't understand why he would lie about something like what he had told. Tsunade-obaasan clearly thought the same way, since a good number of Konohan ninjas were also heading towards the feared Akatsuki's hideout.

Kisame looked at the blonde genin. He noticed the kid staring at Itachi, but decided not to say anything. Itachi also seemed to notice. "Kisame", he quietly said, "What does it seem like?" Kisame frowned. "What do you mean?" he asked the Uchiha. "Does he approve?" Itachi asked, and Kisame heard a hint of mocking in his voice. "Seems like he can't decide", the shark like man answered and a grin formed to his lips. Itachi _almost _smiled. "Hn."

Naruto saw then talking, but couldn't hear what they were saying. It made him pout, since he was pretty sure it was about him, because of Kisame's glance at him. Kakashi noticed his sour look and lifted his one visible brow. "What is it?" he asked. "Huh? Nothing", the blonde answered. "Do you think we'll make it in time?" he wondered then out loud. Kakashi sighed silently and turned the look of his dark eye forward. "I don't know." Naruto huffed. He hoped they'd make it.

They traveled fast and when they could almost see to the entrance of the hideout, Kiba Inuzuka suddenly stopped. "Wait everyone!" he called, getting everyone to stop. Kakashi sharpened his senses. "What is it?" Shikamaru, who was standing now next to the dog-boy, asked. Kiba sniffed the air a few times.

"Enemy. I can _smell _the bloodlust", he informed. Itachi looked at Kiba for a moment, before nodding. Good call. A considerable amount of Konoha ninjas were sure to attract unwanted attention if they got too close to the enemy. When the smell slowly fainted, Kiba said: "It's clear." Itachi nodded to Kisame, and they continued to lead the troops towards the battle-zone.

......... ......... .........

Orochimaru was standing on a tree-branch, looking at the rock which hid the doorway to the hideout. He grinned to himself and started chuckling. "Kabuto", he called quietly, knowing his servant would be there.

"Yes, Orochimaru-sama?" the silver haired shinobi asked after appearing in a split second from his master's call. "Is the explosion ready?" Orochimaru wanted to know. Kabuto frowned lightly, and said: "Yes. Master... My intention is not to question you ability of making decisions, but wouldn't it be better to sneak in, surprise them?" Orochimaru snorted. "If questioning me is not your intention, quit doing so. They are prepared for this... More or less", he hissed. Kabuto nodded briefly. "Shall I give the sign then?" he asked. His master once again smirked evilly. His Deidara-chan would love it. "Yesss..."

......... ......... .........

BOOM!

"Brat, please tell me that was one of your sculptures", Sasori said when the explosion ravished the hideout. The blonde looked his Danna straight in the eye and shook his head. "No, un. It wasn't mine. It must've begun, yeah..." he said sounding somewhat tense. Sasori nodded and stood up. "Let's not keep them waiting", he said and headed for the door. "Come on, brat." Deidara swallowed, but followed the redhead. It's not like they hadn't prepared...

Deidara knew where to go. He headed to the back door of the hideout and straight out, not surprised to notice enemy ninjas ambushed around the place. He had not yet been noticed. He snorted and smirked lightly. "They think I'll rush out like that, un... Amateurs", he thought and formed handseals. "Katsu", he whispered and soon the whole area was a big explosion, which still didn't damage the hideout itself. The hidden bombs had worked out well.

Now that he saw the place was more safe to walk in, Deidara went to the smoky clearing and created a huge bird to carry him. It flew high above, to observe the scene on the ground. His mission was not to fight yet, but to see where enemy was coming from, and if any backup was to arrive. Though clouds and thunderstorm usually made flying a little uncomfortable, this time the bomber had to admit: Enkaku's clouds made it a lot easier not to be noticed. They had been hanging there for a while already, telling about her discomfort.

......... ......... .........

"Did you hear that!?" Naruto yelled after the bang. "It would've been impossible not to", Shikamaru noted and held his ear. "This is getting troublesome." Itachi and Kisame shared a worried glance. "I don't think that was Deidara..." Kisame said quietly and Itachi nodded in agreement. "We've got to hurry." And so they did. Then finally they were there.

Enemy were hidden so badly, no one believed it was even really their intention. The rock covering the doorway was blown into pieces, and a few Oto-ninjas came from the shade of the trees towards the hideout. They were close to enter, but then a small white bird dropped to their feet. They stared at it for a moment before it exploded. Most of the ninjas had of course been shadow clones, but who weren't, were now dead or unable to move a muscle. Deidara grinned from the sky.

"You can't go in there, un", he called to the woods. "Says who? You? How are you alone going to stop us?" someone mocked back. "Too scared to show your face, are you, yeah..." Deidata mumbled, but then something -someone- else caught everyone's attention.

"He's not alone." Kisame and Itachi stood in front of the doorway and behind them were Sasori, Tobi, Enkaku and Pain, in all six forms. A cold laughter filled the space around them. "As pathetic as I thought you would be... Fighting for each other 'til the death. Only you", Orochimaru's voice mocked. He slowly walked from the woods to stand in front of the Akatsuki. "I will get you."

Suddenly there was a large clearing, bordered with high trees around them, like a battle arena. Clearly some jutsu had vanished the trees from the area, but no one thought of that any more. They had enough to think about in the amount of enemies the lack of trees revealed.

Tobi walked forward from the Akatsuki's side and stopped a meter away from the snake-sannin. "You won't get us", he said in a calm voice. "Give up already." "Not even an option", Orochimaru grinned and waved a little sign to Kabuto, which only he noticed. Soon he was attacking Tobi, meaning Madara, from behind. He never got to finish his blow though, because that's when Kakashi stepped in. He appeared in between Madara and Kabuto, and blocked the latter's attack.

"Konoha wishes to destroy Oto as much as you want Akatsuki", the copy-ninja said. His sharingan was revealed and he faced Kabuto in a fighting stance. Other Konohans were also standing in between the hideout and Oto's men. Orochimaru chuckled again. "Very well... Let us begin then." Then he charged towards Madara. The battle had begun.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note:** Okay, chapter 6. My english is somewhat clumsy in this chapter especially, but I hope it doesn't bother too much.

All reviews are more than welcome..!

.........

Deidara dove on his bird to drop a few small spiders. Familiar signs, one word and they exploded, injuring gravely few of the enemies. When he turned the bird back up, he felt a strong tug on it's left wing.

He almost fell, but managed to regain his balance and looked what was going on. There was a thin black rope around the base of the wing. A black haired enemy kunoichi smirked on the ground and pulled the string, which was controlled by her jutsu. It cut through Deidara's clay like a sharp knife, and the bird's wing fell off.

Deidara cursed heavily as the bird also started to fall towards the ground where the battle raged, trying to get the control back. Effort was hopeless though, since the one winged sculpture just couldn't fly anymore, it fell right in front of the Oto-kunoichi who laughed.

Deidara barely managed to stop the sculpture from exploding. The cloud of dust which rose when he hit the ground momentarily blinded him, but he distantly heard the kunoichi laugh again. "Master will be happy with me when I take you to him..."

......... ......... .........

Sasori was hidden inside Hiruko as always in battle. The puppet's tail flung from side to another, killing and poisoning enemy ninjas and his puppets gracefully slaughtered beside him. There was a lot of enemy ninjas, but they weren't brilliant fighters.

The puppeteer was trying to get to Deidara, when he saw the bomber falling with his dumb bird, which seemed to be one wing short. Sasori's heart skipped a beat, but he was glad to notice the clay didn't explode. Deidara seemed unscratched by the downfall, but had his hands full with an enemy ninja already. There was no way he'd wait for the blonde with this... Chisoku had to be sent to Sunagakure as fast as possible. Akatsuki and Konoha were in trouble with the amount of Orochimaru's troops.

Sasori headed to the hideout, managed to sneak in unnoticed, and ran straight to his and Deidara's room to get the message bird. Chisoku was sitting on top of one of Sasori's unfinished puppets, watching the puppeteer curiously when he hurried to get a scroll from the drawer and tie it to her leg. Then he hid her under his cloak. He couldn't afford to take any risks.

"Oi! You ugly piece of shit! What the hell you think you're doing here?" someone called from the doorway. Sasori frowned in annoyance. "One would think Hidan is back", he said and turned to face the pink haired woman. "I don't know who the hell you're talking about, but I know you're not going anywhere", she announced and reached for her kunai holder. Sasori grew more and more annoyed and flung his metallic tail towards her. She ducked and at the same time she had to duck a big red scythe.

"Hey bitch!" Sasori had never been that happy to hear Hidan's voice than he was now. He only wanted to get the message going as soon as possible and also he wanted to make sure Deidara was alright. The foul-mouthed woman was forcing him to make people wait. "Fuck", she hissed.

Hidan pulled the rope that hung from his scythe and the weapon flew to his hand. "I'm your fucking opponent now, bitch", he said. The woman turned so that he didn't have to turn her back to either of the Akatsukis and growled at Hidan. "Name is Tayuya, you better not call me bitch!" she yelled and reached for her weapons again.

Sasori rolled his eyes. Chisoku was getting restless and her quiet chirping reminded him of the hurry he was in. "I'll just leave her to you", he said. He wanted to ask how Hidan's and Kakuzu's journey had turned out, but decided it'd be waste of time. "Yeah, yeah get going", the Jashinist said and waved his hand.

Sasori hurried out of the room, into the hallway and to Itachi and Kisame's room. He couldn't go out in Hiruko anymore, he'd be delayed if he was recognized as an Akatsuki member. So he simply left Hiruko and his cloak into his comrades' room and carefully checked no one saw as he ran out of the hideout, now looking like the redheaded man he was.

With some help from fellow Akatsukis and Konohans, Sasori made it through the battlefield to a calmer place, where he thought it was safe to set Chisoku free. "Take this to Sunagakure, to the Kazekage", he told her before she flew off. "Don't betray us", he whispered, watching her go. Next he wanted to find Deidara.

"Sasori", Zetsu's voice called behind the redhead. He turned around and asked: "What is it, Zetsu?" "Leader-sama wants everyone to the meeting room as fast as possible**. **_**Run already, Pinocchio",** _the schizophrenic said. Sasori ignored the nickname and nodded. "Alright. Have you reached Deidara?" he wanted to know. Zetsu tilted his head slightly. "_**No. **_Not yet. Only Kakuzu and Konan before you. _**The blondie could be dead for all I know**_", he said. Sasori narrowed his eyes ever so slightly. "You promise me now you'll find him next and I head to the meeting room, or I'll go find him and you tell Leader-sama not to wait for me", he told.

Zetsu was quiet for a moment. "_**Tough one. **_I'll go to your partner now, _**and you hurry to obey Pain, do we understand each other?" **_he eventually said. Sasori nodded, "Yes, we do." Then he took off towards the place he had just came from, leaving Zetsu there. "_**Damn that piece of waste wood. **_He's in love. _**Everyone in the organization is. But us. **_Maybe our time will come. But now is not the best time to think of it. _**Never is. Lets go find the terrorist now. **_Going", he mumbled to himself and also took off, to another direction.

......... ......... .........

Deidara was down. He was laying on the ground, tied with the black-haired kunoichi's jutsu. He had ran out of clay during the fight and one simple mistake had caused him to get caught to his weird black ropes. He groaned and struggled against them, but it was no use.

"This is perfect", the kunoichi mused, looking pretty pleased with herself. "Orochimaru-sama will truly love this." That statement caused Deidara to struggle even more, the thin ropes to sunk into his skin. His wrists were already bleeding, but he didn't even notice. The kunoichi frowned at that.

"Stop that", she told. "We were told not to cause you bad injuries." Deidara looked up at her angrily. "Let me go and I can stop struggling, yeah", he said and looked around himself, but saw no one who could help. They were too busy with their own opponents to notice his state. The kunoichi laughed. "Yeah, sure I'll let you go...Oh well, maybe he won't mind a few minor cuts", she said and shrugged.

Deidara swallowed hard and gritted his teeth. He was about to be dragged to his worst nightmare, to Orochimaru's mercy.

......... ......... .........

"Did you reach everyone?" Pain asked Zetsu as they hurried along the hallway, towards the meeting room. The schizo was a lot calmer than the leader, who had a lasting frown on his face. "Everyone but Deidara and Hidan", Zetsu answered. "Great. Where are they?" Pain asked in a tense voice. "I don't know where Deidara is. _**I'm not their keeper.**_ But Hidan is fighting someone in Deidara's and Sasori's room. He was kind of busy with the kunoichi",the other answered. Pain was about to snap at him, but decided not to. Zetsu was right anyway.

An explosion ravished the hideout from the outside, causing the stony ceiling to come down right behind the two. Pain only glanced over his shoulder, not even slowing down. "Damn. We're going to need to do some serious repairing when this is over", he mumbled. _If we're alive then_, he thought.

"Was about time to come", was Kisame's greeting when they entered the meeting room. Pain quickly scanned the room and to his relief he found Konan sitting on the corner of the table, unscratched. "Pain, why are we here?" she asked in a worried tone. "I want to take an overall view on all of you. To see everyone's alive and well", he said. "You don't usually take those in the middle of the battle", Itachi remarked.

"Actually I also wanted to hear how you succeeded, Kakuzu", Pain said and turned to face the miser. "Apparently you didn't return empty handed?" Kakuzu crossed his arms and shook his head. "Unfortunately, from Yugakure we got more enemies than comrades, but we got few dozen strong ninjas", he told. "Orochimaru got there first." Pain bit his lower lip. "Is that so... Have you sent a word to Sunagakure, Sasori?" he asked. The puppeteer nodded. Pain saw concern in his eyes and realized everyone wasn't "alive and well".

"Deidara might not be that well", Madara said suddenly. "How do you mean?" Sasori hurried to ask. "When I was fighting with Orochimaru, someone came to tell him something. I didn't hear what she said, but it made him smirk. He turned into snakes that spread in all directions and disappeared from my sight", Madara told. "That was just a moment ago, before Zetsu came to get me here."

Sasori stared at him for a moment. "He has Deidara", he then said. "That snake has Deidara." The room was silent before Enkaku stood up from her seat looking from Madara to Sasori and to Pain. "We've got to get him back. Preferably fast", she said. "Just great... We're in trouble with Orochimaru's men already, like we needed something like this on top of it", Kisame growled. "How do we find him?"

"Maybe I can help", a quiet female voice said from the corner of the room. Everybody jumped and turned to see who had managed to sneak on Akatsuki like that. Pain stared at the young woman who slowly stepped to the light. How the hell had she gotten there? He had never seen her before, but apparently Kakuzu had. "Bana", he said and frowned. "You know this girl?" Kisame demanded. "Yeah", Kakuzu said, glancing the shark from the corner of his eye. "She's Hidan's sister."

The room was silent for a second again, and this time Sasori was the first to talk. "You can explain later, what did you mean by helping us?" Bana nodded. "There are few incredible trackers in Academy, they can track down the snake for you", she said. "Should I call for them?"

Pain glanced at Madara, but couldn't tell what went through the Uchiha's mind. He sure knew how to be a leader when really needed, but sometimes he didn't say anything.

Pain sighed. "Yeah. Tell them to get ready. Sasori must go with them, Kakuzu as a medic, Madara is the only one who Orochimaru has any respect towards, so they go too. Others will go back to fight and wait for Suna to answer", he said. "And hope they do, quickly." Bana walked out of the room, ducking a falling rock on her way.

Pain eyed each of his men at a time. Enkaku seemed to be alright, only exhausted. She had been fighting a little further from others so that her little thunderstorms didn't mess up other jutsus, like Itachi's fire-based ones. The younger Uchiha also seemed fine, he had only a scratch on his cheek, and blood on his sleeve. Kisame's left arm was probably broken, but it didn't seem to bother him too much. Kakuzu and Sasori looked both unharmed, aside from the uncharacteristic worry in the latter's eyes and the fact that he was shirtless.

"Hey bitch! Where are you going?" Hidan's voice reached them from the hallway. "If I were you I'd worry about my own location. Which should be your meeting room", Bana's calm, impassive voice answered. "Tch, yeah, yeah."

Hidan stepped to the room and he was a real mess. He was carrying his whole left arm in his right, and he barely stayed in one...two pieces. He had a really deep cut on his side, so deep he was almost

in halves. Pain lifted his brows and glanced at Kakuzu, who Hidan was looking at, almost apologetically. "...I should just finish cutting you in halves, you know", the miser said, but Pain knew he was relieved to see his partner.

Hidan was quickly informed of Deidara's disappearance and Madara announced he could be helpful in getting the bomber back. So it was four men squad and the trackers for the mission. Non of them forgot the hopeless seeming battle going on, and all of them wanted to see the whole organization together again soon.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note:** The seventh chapter. Pretty long and I hope it didn't turn out too boring... I'm sorry if the characters appear OOC. VERY angsty Deidara in this chapter. Nothing too graphic. I'm letting you use your imagination here...

All reviews are welcome!

**Disclaimer: **All named characters except for Bana, Susuna and Janette are Masashi Kishimoto's. Not mine. And Setomaru is my imagination also. Almost forgot him...

.........

Deidara was sitting in a cave, not too far from the battleground. His hands were tied behind his back and he was blindfolded. He tried his best not to panic, but to try and think of a way to escape. The terror creeping into his mind was not exactly helping...

He tried to reach the ropes around his wrists with the mouths on his palms, but soon noticed it was not rope. It moved and made noises, and ropes don't do that. It took Deidara a second or two to realize he was tied by snakes.

"Ku ku ku..." Deidara froze and his breath hitched. He forced himself to calm down again. "Orochi- Orochimaru..?" he said as steadily as possible. "Yesss. I'm here, Dei-chan", the sannin murmured. His words were followed by hissing, but not from Orochimaru's mouth.

Deidara could hear them, he could _feel _them slither towards him. He automatically pulled his knees to his chest and pressed tightly against the wall of the cave, still knowing it wouldn't save him. Something started making its way along his arm under his cloak and slowly all around his torso. "Stop, un!" Deidara cried as he tensed and struggled.

While Deidara was distracted by the snake, Orochimaru came closer and eventually put a hand on his cheek. The bomber flinched. "Calm down, Deidara. She won't hurt you", Orochimaru hummed and stroked the blonde hair. "_She_ won't", Deidara noted shakily.

Orochimaru chuckled. "It's not my fault you are so irresistible when you are in pain", he said and started slowly opening Deidara's cloak. Deidara tried to fight him off, but his legs didn't obey him. Something was wrong. The snake had bit him.

"You... You bastard, yeah!" he growled. Orochimaru was only amused, his chuckling was a voice from Deidara's nightmares. His cloak fell down his shoulders and Orochimaru spread his legs to crawl closer in between them.

"You should learn to enjoy this", the sannin hissed to the blonde's ear, who shivered and turned his head to a side.

_This is it_, he thought as Orochimaru's long tongue traced his collarbone. _Sasori where are you..._

......... ......... .........

Sasori was furious. No emotion crossed his face, but inside he was on fire. How dared Orochimaru take Deidara? Also guilt crossed his mind; He should've gone to help when he saw the blonde fall. He forced those thoughts out of his mind and concentrated on following the trackers. They noticed every single tiniest lead and knew where to follow them.

"Are we even going to the right direction, seriously? All I see is fucking trees", Hidan asked. His sister stared blankly forward and said: "Whenever you feel like taking the lead, go ahead. I'm sure you know much better." Hidan snorted, but remained quiet.

Bana had taken two kunoichi to track down Orochimaru. They seemed to know what they were doing, and Madara definitely wanted to trust them. The other was a blonde, skinny girl who had introduced herself as Susuna. The other was black-haired, short girl with strong eyeliner. Her name was Janette.

They led the group through the forest, further away from the battleground. However, their journey came to an abrupt stop when a group of Oto-ninjas seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"You will not go any further", one of them said simply. Madara stepped forward and said: "I don't think we are to take commands from you, whoever you are." The Oto-ninja lifted his chin, so that he was able to look down at the Uchiha. "I am Setomaru. I can not let you go any further", he announced. Madara tilted his head. "We'll see."

Setomaru lowered his face and suddenly sprinted towards the leader of the Akatsuki's group. His speed grew unbelievable in a split second, but still a small step was enough for Madara to avoid the attack. Setomaru couldn't stop in time and crashed into a tree.

Akatsuki members and Yugakure ninja's found themselves surrounded by the enemy, back's against each other's. They were pretty much screwed.

Sasori actually gritted his teeth in anger. These guys made him wait- they forced him to make Deidara wait. His blonde was in God knows how horrible situation, and Sasori had to stand there. Madara seemed to notice how he tensed, because he said: "Calm down, Sasori. We'll save Deidara." "We won't make it in time... We won't make it at all! There's too much of them", Sasori growled.

Setomaru got up from the destroyed tree and wiped some pieces of wood off his clothes. "You are as good as dead", he said slowly and grinned. He was about to charge again, but he couldn't move his feet. Sand had started to wrap around his ankles, slowly climbing up his legs. Slowly and in incredibly intimidating way. Setomaru started frantically pulling his leg, but in vain. Sasori knew only one ninja with that jutsu...

"The Kazekage..." he mumbled. Hidan looked at him like he was an alien. "What the hell!?" he asked. "What does Kazekage have to do with anything?" Kakuzu wanted to know. "He's here", Madara said quietly.

The Oto-ninjas looked incredulous and shocked, and Setomaru panicked. The sand reached his waist already. "Stop!" he cried and miraculously it stopped. His grin returned as he lifted his hands. "A mistake", he hissed. He didn't have time to form a single one hand sign though, before Gaara's words "Sand Coffin" were heard from the shade of the trees.

It was not beautiful, but Sasori had time to think that Deidara would've loved the blood burst which ensued when Setomaru's lower body was crushed in the sand. It kind of looked like an explosion. His upper body fell to the ground, twitched a few times and went utterly still.

Gaara stepped to the clearing, Kankuro and Temari not far behind. "We got your message", the Kazekage said briefly. Sasori only had to move his hand and the puppet made of the third Kazekage was there. "Fucking perfect timing!" Hidan said and smirked, reaching for his scythe. "Let's kick their asses."

......... ......... .........

Deidara had already given up. He didn't try to escape. He could only wish the battle was going well, but his own fate was to eventually die in Orochimaru's hands. He hadn't gotten up from the cave's floor, where the mentioned snake-sannin had left him, but he had pulled his pants back on. Then he had given up.

He could hear the hissing of the snakes around him, but he saw nothing. Once those voices had scared him to death, but not anymore, now he just didn't care. He was Orochimaru's property now.

Tears rolled down Deidara's cheeks when he thought about Sasori. Where was he now? Was he okay? Deidara hoped so. If only his Danna would come... But how could he? He didn't probably know Deidara wasn't in the battle anymore. No one probably knew. And even if they did, how could they find him from the cave anyway? The thought was so desperate it made Deidara curl into a ball and cry silently.

......... ......... .........

Kisame didn't remember the last time he had been in so big trouble with an enemy, without even a chance to retreat. Oto-ninja's were everywhere. The shark-like man didn't know if he was happy or not about the fact that Orochimaru had invested in amount over skill anymore. He didn't know how much longer he could take the pressure, even though he had the most chakra in the Akatsuki. Samehada was busy ripping enemies into pieces and his water justus hadn't gone to waste.

When he got the chance, he looked around to see Itachi. The Uchiha avoided direct taijutsu fights as much as possible, he rather used his sharingan or fire based ninjutsus. Kisame knew his sharingan was draining his power fast and grew more and more worried over him.

Kisame had to admit that without Konoha and the Academy's help, the battle would be lost already. If only Suna would come...

As an answer to his thought, Oto's unorganized lines started breaking. "Suna's here", one of Pain's forms said while running past to kill another enemy. Kisame lifted a brow and couldn't help saying: "Well that was quick..."

"Kisame!" Itachi shouted suddenly. "Behind you!" Kisame had barely time to whirl around and lift Samehada to protect him from a fierce strike. He lost his balance and fell backwards. Above him stood a pale man, whose ribcage seemed to grow out through his skin.

"Kisame!?" the shark heard Itachi call from a distance. "Don't worry about me Itachi!" he shouted over the noises of the battle. Then he concentrated on the weird Oto-ninja again and grimaced. The worst thing was that there were those skilled and deadly ones among the mass. This man was definitely one of them.

......... ......... .........

Deidara heard distant voices. Sounds of a fight. Since cave was silent - even the snakes had stopped hissing - he could hear some noises from outside. He didn't give them a second thought though. Orochimaru's guards had probably started bickering over something next to nothing.

That's how much Deidara was worth. His guards didn't even think he'd try to escape, they thought they had time to quarrel among themselves. Deidara laughed bitterly between sobs. That's how much he was worth...

He couldn't think clearly, nor could he see even half a meter ahead, but he thought he recognized the last voice he heard before blacking out: "He must be here... Search the cave!" But his mind rejected the thought; Madara couldn't be there. He lost consciousness in utter despair.

Just dozen meters away from him Sasori hurried forward in the darkness of the very same cave. He kept his ears open for any smallest voice that could warn about a trap or hint where Deidara was. Silence greeted him. His eyes scanned the floor and the walls as well as possible and soon he saw a half naked figure laying on the ground.

"D-Deidara..!" the puppeteer breathed and knelt next to the bomber. He touched Deidara's cheek gently and noticed it was soaked with tears. The blonde himself didn't stir. The amount of blood around the floor worried Sasori and he lifted Deidara's head gently to his lap. "What has he done to you..." he whispered.

"Sasori? Did you find him?" It was Kakuzu's voice. Of course... Deidara needed a medic, immediately. "He's here", Sasori called. Kakuzu was there in no time and others followed not far behind. The sand siblings and Academy's ninjas stayed back, watching for traps and enemies.

Madara created a small flame to his palm. "Holy shit", Hidan mumbled at the sight of the death pale blonde. Kakuzu also knelt next to Deidara and pressed his palm onto his chest. The miser's strings started sewing the numerous, but not too deep cuts around Deidara's body. "He should be fine physically. I can't see anything that would cause any persistent damage", Kakuzu said as he lifted his hand. Everyone heard the pressure on the word 'physically'.

Sasori let out a deep breath which could hardly be called relieved. It was more like worried and desperate. "How is it possible this happened again..?" he mumbled mostly to himself. "After I promised...promised it wouldn't."

Kakuzu looked at him beneath his brow, but stood up without saying a word. Kankuro was the one to break the silence: "Sorry to interrupt... Really. But we seem to have company." When Sasori didn't seem to react in any way, Kakuzu picked Deidara into his arms and Hidan smacked the puppeteer gently to the back of his head. "Wake up. We need to get out, seriously", he said. Sasori seemed to snap out of his trance, he nodded and left the cave beside Kakuzu and Deidara.

They took him to another, smaller and less known hideout, about ten minutes away from the most used one that happened to be under attack.

As others headed back to the battle, Bana volunteered to stay behind and look after Deidara there. Sasori wanted to stay, but understood he was needed in the battle. He had found a whole new rage to kill Orochimaru's men. When the snake himself finally crawled out of his hide, he wouldn't have anyone to stand beside him, that Sasori wanted to make sure.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: **Nearing it's end now... The 8th chapter. It's longer than the previous ones and I hope it's not too boring. Also, the fighting scene is terrible, but I had to try... And throw another pairing in there. Anyway, thanks if you've really read this far and THANK YOU for reviews :)

**Disclaimer:** Bana and Enkaku are OCs but Masashi Kishimoto owns everything else. I'm not making any money with this.

Please, review!

.........

The battle was nearing its end. Orochimaru's troops didn't stand a chance against Akatsuki, Konoha, Suna and Yugakure's Academy. Only the sannin himself was missing.

"Where is he?" Sasori asked and scanned the area with his brown eyes that now were getting filled with frustration. Madara glanced at him. "Hiding. He'll come soon with something he thinks will be able to kill us all, or then he will remain hiding for a long time", the Uchiha said calmly. "I almost wish for the first option", Sasori mumbled and Madara nodded. He understood the puppeteer.

The worst-case-scenario, now when the victory of the enemy troops was certain, was that Orochimaru would not come back to the fight. That he'd remain underground, unscratched, and just wait for the moment to attack. He'd be bitter. He'd be angry. And he'd most likely target Enkaku and Deidara, or even Itachi. They wanted to defeat him for sure.

......... ......... .........

Kakashi closed the eyes of a ninja he had just stabbed dead. That was his last opponent, somehow he knew that. He had been driven to the forest by a group of Oto-ninja's and surrounded, but he had gotten away without worse injuries. The worst he had was a broken wrist and a long cut on his leg. He considered himself lucky.

"Kakashi!" someone called, not far away. "Kakashi, you here..!?" Kakashi recognized that voice and felt relieved. So Iruka was okay... "I'm over here..!" the copy ninja called back. Iruka was quickly there by his side.

"Oh, good, I found you", the brunette said and smiled at him. "We won." Kakashi returned the smile and pulled his hitai-ate down to cover his sharingan. "Great", he said and tilted his head then, seeing how exhausted the younger ninja was. "Are you okay?" he asked.

Iruka frowned and put his hands on his hips. "I'm fine! Considering we just fought against Orochimaru, the great sannin's ninja's, and won. I'm great..! But you seem to be damaged..." he said. Kakashi was glad to notice Iruka really was not seriously injured. "Oh, I'm just fine", he said, but started feeling lightheaded right after it. _Shit..._he thought, _Chakra exhaustion. I overused the sharingan..._

Iruka's frown deepened when the copy ninja went death pale. "Kakashi..?" Kakashi started swaying lightly. Realization hit Iruka and he rushed forward to catch the falling ninja before he hit the ground. Iruka gently lowered him down and kneeled next to him with a deep sigh. "You overdid it, didn't you..." he murmured. "I'll get someone to help you here." Then he couldn't help but to smile at the unconscious man. "I'm happy you're alive, love."

......... ......... .........

Akatsuki were gazing down at the mass of dead ninja's from the rocky roof of their hideout. Kakuzu was carrying Hidan's head when the rest of the body was in the hideout. The zealot's head had somehow miraculously gotten separated from his body and Kakuzu surprisingly hadn't bothered to sew it back immediately.

Kisame had a makeshift bandage around his arm and some scratches, where as Itachi seemed like he hadn't fought at all. His cloak hid a slight burn he had on his side and his half blindness couldn't be noticed either.

Pain, only the most usual form, had a pretty bad stab wound on his stomach, but Kakuzu had sewed it shut. It didn't lessen the pain much, but his life wasn't in danger. Konan had no wounds of worse injuries.

Enkaku wasn't wounded either, only exhausted. She had used way too much chakra in his attacks, not controlling her anger and wasting it. Madara didn't show any sign of being hurt, but actually he had gotten a hard blow to his head and he was sure he had a slight concussion. A few snake bites were left from the fight with Orochimaru, but nothing fatal.

They were lucky. Extremely lucky. Sasori and Deidara hadn't been.

The puppeteer was still waiting for Orochimaru impatiently. He wasn't injured and he had gotten his cloak back, but he suffered for Deidara. He had hard time trusting Bana, but she had proven herself already. There was no other choice but to trust. After all, Sasori had to be there himself, making sure Orochimaru would be gone. Sure he knew the sannin couldn't possibly find the other hideout, but still a fear ate him inside.

"Where the hell is that asshole, seriously!" Hidan yelled, obviously getting tired of waiting, too. "Shut up", Kakuzu stated, "That's what we're all wondering." "I'm starting to believe he's not coming", Enkaku said quietly, very uncharacteristically. "Don't say that", Sasori snapped. Enkaku bit her lip and looked down.

They looked at how their backup searched for their own, took the bodies and treated the injured. They saw Janette crying and almost howling where Susuna lay on the ground, dead. Sadly, they were used to seeing things like that.

Suddenly a scream was heard from the shadow of the forest. There was an enormous snake, slithering through the trees, towards the battleground. Orochimaru was standing on top of her. "Manda", Sasori hissed venomously and proceeded to jump down to fight. Madara stopped him. "Don't", he said. "You can't get yourself killed now." The Uchiha's voice was firm and didn't leave room for arguments. Then he jumped down and walked towards the snake.

"Madara", Orochimaru hissed, "You again." Madara tilted his head. "Who'd you expect? After you ran off from our last fight", he said, "you thought I'd do so now?" Orochimaru grinned. "I thought I'd give you time to choose whether you wanted to be killed by me... You seem to have chosen you do", he mocked. "Meanwhile I was having some fun."

Rage filled Madara. How dared he to talk about Deidara like that? He forced himself to stay calm. "Well, too bad your fun is over. I mean it", he said and disappeared from where he had been standing.

Orochimaru's eyes narrowed for a split second, before he jumped to the ground and dodged a kunai. Then Madara was there and the sannin had no choice but to surrender into a tai-jutsu match with the Uchiha. They moved too fast to be perfectly seen by anyone.

There was something Madara had noticed. Something that gave out Orochimaru's desperation and the fact that he was running out of ideas. Manda wasn't really there. She was a perfect image and a moving one, but not the real thing. She could hurt no one.

Gaara was watching the fight that was going on between the old Uchiha and Orochimaru. His brother was standing beside him. Kankuro seemed anxious for some reason, but Gaara didn't ask why. He wasn't sure if he should've. He noticed Kankuro kept eyeing the forest every now and then, and then turning his attention back to the battle.

"What is it?" Gaara eventually asked, when Kankuro cast a longer lasting, more concerned look to the trees. "I'm wondering why Temari hasn't come back yet", the puppeteer said. Gaara frowned and followed his gaze. It had been Temari's task to search for wounded and dead Suna- ninja's from the borders of the forest, and it had taken her way too long. "You can go find her", the Kazekage stated simply. Kankuro nodded and took off.

It was surprisingly dark where the trees cast their long shadows and not much sound could be heard. Kankuro didn't see anyone from where he was standing and started looking for his sister. Something told him not to call out for her, but to keep running and keep his eyes opened.

Soon he came to a place where the trees were not that close to each other. It was not quite a clearing, but it had apparently served as a battle arena as well. There were bodies everywhere and blood covered the ground. Kankuro swallowed hard and started going through the corpses to catch any sign of Temari.

He was already giving up and moving to look from somewhere else, when a body of a big Oto-ninja shifted. Kankuro froze and narrowed his eyes. It had certainly been dead... But when it was thrown to a side, it revealed Temari slowly sitting up from where she had been laying, completely covered by dead bodies. Kankuro gaped for a second before rushing to her side.

"Temari..! Are you okay?" he asked as he kneeled next to her. She was a mess, all pale and bloody and her shoulder was nothing less than crushed. "I...I'm alive..." she said, looking like she was about to lose consciousness. Kankuro helped her to sit up and then proceeded to carry her to safety on his back. She held on tight with her healthy arm and sighed.

"Happy to see you, little brother", she said quietly. Kankuro grunted. "I'm happy when we're home and you're well. I can't believe I didn't come for you earlier..." he grumbled sourly. Temari didn't respond and Kankuro hurried his steps.

......... ......... .........

Sasori just stood still, looking at the fight going on down on the battleground. He was most likely living through the worst moments of his life. He couldn't think about anything clearly, all the worry, annoyance, distress and anger mixing up inside him. He would've given a lot to be the one fighting Orochimaru, yet he knew Madara had the best chance to defeat him.

So far, it didn't look too good.

"He's going down", Kisame noted quietly and Enkaku bit her lip so hard it bled. "Not so fast", Itachi said with a strained voice. "Orochimaru's the one losing chakra more." Kisame gave him a glance and turned then back to the battle. Then he frowned and quickly looked back at Itachi. "You shouldn't be using your sharingan now, you'll faint", the shark-like man said. Itachi ignored him.

"Orochimaru seems to be using his chakra to keep up that image of Manda", the younger Uchiha noted. Hidan glared at him. "What the hell are you talking about?" he wanted to know. "That's just an image, I guess he wanted to scare us. Truth is he knew he couldn't go underground with all these villages looking for him and he didn't think he was strong enough to win without some tricks", Itachi answered.

Kakuzu nodded. "So, in reality he's causing his own defeat in short. Madara must've noticed also", he concluded. "I wish you're right", Enkaku said and refused to cry. Konan sat on a rock with Pain, who grimaced in pain. She couldn't believe it had come to this, one last fight.

Madara couldn't deny he was getting tired. He was just glad Orochimaru was also getting sloppy and the picture of Manda started fading slightly. Now the two ninja's were facing each other, panting and glaring. There was snakes around the ground, still at the moment, but ready to attack when their master told them to.

Madara lowered his position and charged forward, successfully dodging the first and the second row of snakes, but with the third one he was not so lucky. A dozen poisonous serpents attacked him, burying their teeth into his skin.

Little did they harm the shadow clone that had taken his place, as he sneaked behind Orochimaru and pressed a kunai to his neck. With a poof, the sannin disappeared and another, bigger, snake attacked from Madara's right. The Uchiha dodged and sliced it in to halves.

Orochimaru was suddenly right in front of him, managing to land a shuriken to his side. With few quick hand seals, Madara blew a fireball at him, jumping back himself with a pained grunt. A tiny movement caught his attention on his left and he jumped few meters to the air. He landed behind the momentarily lost Orochimaru and shoved a kunai to his neck.

Everything seemed to stop for s few seconds, no one moved. Then Madara pulled the out the kunai, getting thick unnaturally dark blood on himself. Orochimaru's body grumbled to the ground into a weird heap. Madara was panting heavily and shaking lightly.

"Madara!" Enkaku cried and was by his side in a second. "Let me see the shuriken", she demanded. "Enkaku-chaaan... It _hurts_", the Uchiha whined. Enkaku blinked but then chuckled softly in utter relief. He was Tobi now. The changes were sometimes pretty sudden... "I know, Tobi, take it easy", she said and sat Tobi down to the ground. "Let Kakuzu remove it."

The mentioned miser was already there too, with all the other Akatsuki. He just snatched the shuriken out of Tobi's side and sewed the wound shut. One medic they had. Sasori stared at Orochimaru's body. It looked more like snake's skin. "Hey", the puppeteer said, "Do you think he really died?"

Itachi, who was now leaning heavily on Kisame, shook his head. "No... But he'll be gone for quite some time now", he said. "Tobi felt him leave", Tobi announced and rocked a little back and forth. Then he stood up and yawned. "Are you okay, Enkaku-chan?" he asked then. The girl only smiled and shook his head. "Yeah, yeah. I'm good." She bit her lip again and reached out for Tobi, who took her into his arms.

"Sasori..?" The puppeteer whirled around in a split second, when he heard Deidara call him. He and Bana were standing just a meter away from the others. Everything else disappeared from Sasori's mind when he took a long step forward and closed the blonde to a comforting and warm embrace. Deidara wrapped his arms around the redhead and buried his face to the crook of his neck. Sasori was relieved beyond words and Deidara could barely believe his senses, after he had feared he's never see Sasori again. They'd live. Some scars would never heal completely, but the whole Akatsuki was alive.

The battle was over and the big war never started. There was still a lot to do, before they could really start living on.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: **The last, absolutely pointless chapter. Thanks for reading it this far and thank you so much for the reviews ^^ I hope I still get them!

**Disclaimer: **I'm not making money with Naruto and the characters, Masashi Kishimoto is. All his, except for few OCs.

.........

Hidan was looking up to the ceiling. No, he was staring at it. Frowning at it, as if he was expecting it to fall down any minute. Actually he wouldn't have been surprised if it really did fall down on top of him. Now when the battle was over, the Akatsuki had to work their asses off to fix the hideout. Hidan had his share of the work, and getting the ceiling back up was one of his missions.

Most of their backup had stayed there to help with the repairs. That was also because some of the wounded Konoha, Suna and Academy ninja's had been in too bad shape to be moved to their own villages. The secret hideout, the one where Deidara had been, was now serving as a makeshift hospital, where even the Hokage was now working to heal her villagers.

"I thought you were supposed to fix it, not burn a hole to it with that stare", a female voice said behind Hidan, in a flat tone. The zealot turned around to snap at the person, but shut his mouth quickly when he saw who exactly it was. "Oh. It's you... What do you want, bitch?" he asked his sister.

Bana tilted her head, her eyes, being the only part showing of her half masked face, were indifferent. "I came to say goodbye", she stated. Hidan frowned. "You leaving now?" he asked. "Not yet... It's just rare to see you alone, without your partner or someone", Bana answered. "And I wanted to talk to _you_."

Hidan's frown deepened and he for once didn't know what to say. Bana looked down and Hidan thought he saw hesitation in her usually blank eyes. He felt like he was supposed to say something. He was the big brother... But he had abandoned his family. He had left her alone years ago, but she had never blamed him. Shit, they hadn't even talked to each other after that properly.

Bana had always been an introvert child, enough to be called retarded. Never making much friends. She had been good at sneaking on people and staying hidden, for no one ever paid much attention to her.

"You want to say something spit it out, I don't have the whole fucking day, seriously", Hidan finally said, a little too harshly. Bana looked up into his eyes, all emotion gone again. Hidan inwardly sighed. He was really bad with things like these, usually he just didn't give a shit.

"It can wait", the redheaded girl said. Then she looked up and lifted her brow ever so lightly. "You might want to check that again. It's about to crack." Hidan glanced up, too and noticed that long cracks were indeed forming to the ceiling. He groaned. "Go to hell, bitch", he snapped. Bana nodded and disappeared. Hidan groaned again.

He definitely wasn't good with things like feelings and emotions.

......... ......... .........

Deidara was having nightmares. Sasori could see it easily; the bomber was twitching, sweating and quietly groaning in fear and pain. Sasori kneeled next to his bedroll and stroked his hair gently. "Dei... Deidara, wake up", he said, shaking Deidara lightly.

The blonde woke with a start and sat up quickly. He was panting and tears stained his cheeks. Sasori bit his lip and leaned back, even though he only wanted to be close and make Deidara feel safe. He couldn't do it by scaring him. To his surprise, Deidara actually grabbed his cloak and pulled him closer.

"Don't go Danna, un", he said. "I'm not going anywhere, brat", Sasori said and gently took his hand. "I'm right here." Deidara hung his head and bit his lip, fighting to keep his breath even and prevent any more tears from falling.

He held Sasori's hand so tight he feared he might hurt the puppeteer, but couldn't bring himself to let go either. Sasori took a deep breath and said a thing that had been bothering him: "I'm sorry, Deidara."

The bomber looked up and lifted his visible brow. "Sorry for what, un?" he asked. Sasori looked away from the blue eyes. "I promised you he would never get you, and still this happened. I'm sorry I didn't save you when I saw you fall", he said.

"Danna... You had to get the message to the sand, un. I would've kicked your ass for delaying it if you had came for me back there, yeah", Deidara said, almost playfully. Sasori dared to look back to his eyes. "It was not your fault. Not in any way, yeah", the blonde said. "I... I'm just glad you saved me from the cave. I was afraid I'd never see you again, yeah."

Sasori now leaned closer and planted a kiss on Deidara's forehead. "Of course I saved you. But too late. I'm sorry." Deidara couldn't hold back the tears anymore, but started quietly crying against his partner. Still he knew he didn't need to be afraid anymore.

......... ........ .........

"He should wake up any minute now." A female voice said somewhere close. It sounded distantly familiar...

"Oh, good... I'll be here until that, if it's okay?" Another voice, a male, was even closed, and sounded just as familiar to Kakashi's ears.

"Of course. You've worked hard, you deserve a break", the female voice said. Now Kakashi realized to whom it belonged.

What was Tsunade doing there? The other voice must've been Iruka... Kakashi took a deep breath and slowly opened his right eye. Just as he had thought, Iruka sat on the ground next to where the copy ninja was laying. The brunette smiled at him.

"Good timing. How are you feeling?" he asked. Kakashi took another deep breath and said: "Hazy." Iruka chuckled and shook his head. Kakashi smiled and turned his head to look around. "Is everyone okay?" Iruka smiled still, but a little sadly. "Naruto is himself, he drained all his chakra for a change... He's asleep now. There", he said and nodded to Kakashi's left.

He saw the blonde not far from him, sleeping, even _snoring._ The jounin chuckled a little. Bandages and scratches wouldn't stop the young, determined shinobi. Sakura had apparently fallen asleep next to him. "Tsunade says she has been a great help", Iruka said, referring to the pink haired girl. Kakashi nodded. Of course she had.

"How about others?" he asked. Iruka answered by nodding to his right. Kakashi followed his gaze and saw Shikamaru sitting next to a blonde sand kunoichi, who Kakashi recognized as the Kazekage's sister. She was out cold, her whole upper body bandaged.

Her brother, Kankuro, was talking to a medical ninja. They were too far for Kakashi to hear what they were talking about, but the young puppeteer seemed angry and appeared to have trouble keeping his voice down.

Few bedrolls right from Temari, was Hagane Kotetsu, with Kamizuki Izumo standing by his side, sipping tea. His and Kakashi's gazes met shortly and he nodded a little as a greeting. Kakashi answered the same way.

He let his gaze wander around the spacious room and spotted people he knew, including Rock Lee, who was getting his broken fingers fixed; Hinata, who seemed to be only sleeping; Deidara who was curled into Sasori's arms.

For what Itachi and his partner had told in Konoha, Kakashi understood what had happened. He truly felt sorry for the blonde.

......... ......... .........

_Troublesome_. That's what Shikamaru thought it was. Waiting for something to happen by Temari's bed, was absolutely, incredibly troublesome. And nerve-cracking as well. He hadn't quite admitted it before, but now he really noticed how much he cared for her. That especially was troublesome.

The medical ninja who treated her had made the mistake of saying out loud that she might not live more than few hours. Kankuro had lost it, almost started yelling at the poor medic. They were talking further away right that moment. Shikamaru hadn't liked the news either, but he thought Kankuro had the right to be so mad about it. He had become a very protective brother in few years.

"I can't believe it", the young puppeteer almost whispered as he came back and sat down to the other side of the bedroll. "She's the strong one, she can't die on us." Shikamaru agreed with him.

"She won't", he heard himself say and mentally hit himself for it. He knew better than to give false hope to himself or Kankuro. Still he had to say it. "She wouldn't leave you, her brothers."

Kankuro rubbed his paint-less face, his eyes fixed on Shikamaru. "Nor you", he said to the Konohan. Shikamaru glanced at him. "She really likes you and she won't take the risk she'll never be able to tell you that. Her tough facade can be deceiving", Kankuro continued and sighed, his brow furrowing with worry.

Shikamaru nodded. "She must be the most troublesome woman I've ever met..." he mumbled and Kankuro snorted a faint laugh. "I believe that."

"...What the hell are you two going on about?" Both boys jumped at the muffled voice. Temari slowly opened her eyes and frowned at the two. She fixed a firm stare at his brother. "You better stop rambling about my feelings and facades", she said and then turned to face Shikamaru, "and even though I do like you, you'd better stop calling me troublesome right this second."

He couldn't help the smile that formed to his lips and much to his relief, his troublesome woman smiled back. She reached for his hand and squeezed it lightly. "You look like shit... Go to sleep", she said more quietly now, her own eyelids drooping. "You, too, Kankuro..." Then she fell to a peaceful sleep.

Kankuro stared at her for a moment, then looked up, closed his eyes and let out a deep breath of relief. "Damn, _she'd _better not do that again... _Ever_", he said as he stood up. "I'll go tell Gaara she'll be fine. And by the way, you do look like shit."

Shikamaru smiled after him and gave Temari's hand a gentle squeeze. Sometimes there must be bad things for good things to happed. And no matter how much of a drag it was, Shikamaru had learned that...

......... ......... .........

Few days had passed from the battle and everyone who had been able to help, had done so. Pain hadn't been one of them. He couldn't do much with the wound in his stomach. He had only been able to watch how the repairing work had proceeded and the seriously wounded ninjas either died of healed. They had to build a cemetery behind the hideout. It had been frustrating...

Now Pain was walking along the hallway of the bigger hideout, surprised to see that even Hidan had managed to fix the ceiling like he was supposed to.

"Pain-sama", Bana said as she appeared next to him. "The Academy is leaving." Pain didn't stop, only gave the girl a long look. "Now? Others are gathering to the clearing in fifteen minutes, can't you wait that long?" he asked. Bana shook her head. "We have a mission in Yugakure. We leave now", she said. Now Pain stopped and turned to properly face her.

"I thank you for your help. We would never have found Deidara without you", he said. "No problem. We'll be available if something happens, just let us know", Bana said, bowed lightly to Pain and disappeared. Pain continued walking towards the exit, shaking his head.

Konan was standing right outside the hideout, breathing fresh air. Pain walked to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "You should be resting", the kunoichi said, but leaned against Pain, who snorted softly. "I'm just walking a little, it can't be of any harm, can it", he said, "Besides I'm going to have to be here." Konan only sighed as an answer to that.

"It's over", she said after a moment of silence. "The ceiling is fixed, no wounded is in a critical state anymore, our backup are leaving soon... And Orochimaru won't pose a threat to us in some time." Pain didn't say anything.

In the next fifteen minutes, the clearing that had served as the battlefield, was full of ninjas. Konoha, Suna and Akatsuki formed a triangle to the field, so everyone could see each other. Pain, Tsunade and Gaara stepped forward from their own groups.

Some were expecting Madara, but Pain was not about to let Tobi voice his thoughts... So the Akatsuki leader looked at each kage and bowed. "Even though I know you fought for yourselves more than for us, no words can describe how grateful the Akatsuki is for your help. And how sorry we are for your losses", he said.

Among the Akatsuki, Tobi was almost in tears and Hidan snorted. "Yeah, yeah, get on with it..." he mumbled and got a well-aimed blow to his ribs from Kakuzu's elbow.

Tsunade bowed a little as well. "We appreciate your bravery to come to Konoha for help. Can I trust you answer my call if my village gets into trouble?" she asked. "Definitely", Pain said and meant it. "As for Sunagakure, I can promise the same."

Gaara lowered his head into something like a bow and said: "I appreciate that. Nothing brings villages together like a common enemy, but how it goes on from this day forward is not certain", the young Kazekage said and gave his ninjas a sign to leave. "We'll see what the future brings." Then he also left.

Tsunade lifted her chin and gave a small nod. "Well chosen parting words... Good luck", she said and then Konoha, too, was gone.

Hidan shook his head and sighed. "That sounds so official, seriously... You'd think you're talking about a fucking business deal", he said. "It can be seen as a business deal", Kakuzu said. "We still want that Naruto-kid and the fox demon and Konoha still wants Itachi's head. Sasori and Deidara killed the Kazekage, so Suna wants them, rather dead. Still, they helped us in situation that could've led to a war and we made the promise to do the same. It's a good deal."

Konan shook his head and laughed. "That's enough talking about wars and battles and any of us dead. Lets go inside to eat, I've cooked for us!" she said and smiled widely, while everyone else paled visibly. "...You... You cook... You cooked for- for us..?" Pain stuttered and swallowed hard. "Mm-hmm", Konan hummed.

"HELL NO!" Hidan cried and tried to run, but Kakuzu gripped the back of his cloak. He cleared his throat and said: "Food costs. We'll eat it. Stop whining Hidan, we'll both survive. My advise for others, though: Run for you lives..."

Deidara and Sasori shared a quick glance and prepared to really run if situation started looking too bad. Itachi shifted closer to Kisame, who gaped at the kunoichi. "Ready..?" he asked Itachi in a low whisper. Itachi nodded slowly. Tobi looked troubled, he knew he couldn't eat what Konan had cooked, nor let Enkaku eat it, but he didn't want to be rude... Running away would be...

Then Konan started laughing. Everyone stared at her, puzzled, waiting for an explanation. "You guys actually think I want to kill you all?" she asked mirthfully. "I have cooked nothing, Zetsu has!" Many sighed in relief. "Thank God..." Pain mumbled. Konan shook her head, still amused. "Now then. Let's go eat. I hope Zetsu didn't actually _use _the human head he told me he'd make the main food from..."

Anyone who had made a move towards the hideout, stopped. Konan laughed again. "Just kidding." she told and walked inside. Others shared skeptical glances, but followed.

Madara left a little behind and smiled under his mask for the light joking and laughter he had wanted to hear for so long.


End file.
